At BetterCulture, we believe great workplace cultures don’t happen by chance – they’re built by leaders who know exactly what it means to lead.
That clarity is rare.
Too often, leadership development is shaped by trendy fads, inconsistent standards, or individual instinct rather than a coherent, proven philosophy. One manager believes leadership means holding people accountable. Another believes it means supporting employees. Another believes it means protecting the team from pressure. Another believes it means driving results at all costs.
Each may be partly right.
But without a shared framework for what leadership means, employees can experience very different cultures inside the very same organization – depending almost entirely on which manager they happen to get.
That is leadership roulette.
Some employees get a manager who communicates clearly, handles conflict well, builds pride, protects the team, makes thoughtful decisions, and helps people grow. Others get a manager who avoids hard conversations, hoards information, tolerates poor behavior, or unintentionally drains the energy out of the room.
The result is random leadership.
Not because the organization has bad leaders. But because the organization has not given its leaders a clear, unified framework for what it means to lead.
That’s why, for more than two decades, we’ve anchored BetterCulture’s leadership training and culture strategy on one simple, powerful framework: The Seven Principles of Leadership.
The Origin of the Seven Principles of Leadership©
The primary influence for the founding of BetterCulture was a visionary leader named Kim Hoogeveen, PhD. Dr. Hoogeveen penned these Seven Principles of Leadership in 1991 when he became the founding president & CEO of an organization that became one of the most incredible workplace culture success stories in the US:
- An organization voted an unprecedented 5 consecutive times as the #1 Best Place to Work in its metropolitan area
- The largest center of its kind in the United States
- Sustained financial success
- A staff turnover rate one third the industry average
- Tremendous employer brand and blue sky
- And much more…
The Seven Principles were not born from theory. They came from real-world leadership practice inside a culture that achieved extraordinary results.
That experience shaped a core BetterCulture conviction: culture is not created by posters, perks, slogans, or wishful thinking. Culture is created by the repeated behaviors employees experience every day – especially from leaders.
The Seven Principles help define what those leadership behaviors should be.
The Seven Principles of Leadership©
Leadership Principle #1: Leaders maintain a never-ending focus on mission, excellence, and culture.
Leaders are responsible for keeping the most important things in view. Mission gives people purpose. Excellence raises the standard. Culture defines the attitudes and behaviors people come to expect from one another.
The big three to always keep in view: Mission, Excellence, and Culture.
Leadership Principle #2: Leaders create an environment where staff feel proud of their company – and know that their company is proud of them.
Employee pride and appreciation are powerful drivers of healthy teams and cultures. When people are proud of where they work and what they do, performance and quality improve. When employees feel valued and appreciated, engagement, loyalty, and retention tend to improve as well.
Yet many leaders unintentionally miss opportunities to build pride and recognize strong performance. Focused on deadlines, problems, and priorities, they often overlook simple chances to acknowledge effort, celebrate contributions, share positive feedback, or remind people why their work matters.
Over time, those missed opportunities add up. Employees begin to wonder whether anyone notices or appreciates their contributions. Great leaders know that pride and appreciation do not happen automatically. BetterCulture teaches that pride and appreciation are built through consistent recognition, communication, and encouragement. When leaders intentionally reinforce them, employees feel more connected to the organization, committed to its mission, and motivated to do their best work.
Leadership Principle #3: Leaders work hard to help employees be successful at work and in life.
Great leaders do not merely extract performance from people. They help people grow, succeed, contribute, and build better lives through their work. They invest in developing skills, creating opportunities, removing obstacles, and helping employees reach their potential at work and beyond it.
Sometimes work will impinge on life. Sometimes life will impinge on work. The best leaders understand that work and life do not have to pull in opposite directions. At their best, they can integrate and enrich one another. When leaders genuinely care about the success and well-being of their people, employees feel it – and become much more engaged and motivated to do their best work.
Leadership Principle #4: Leaders protect the right of good staff to work with good staff.
Few things are more demotivating to a great employee than working day after day beside someone who is consistently incompetent, negative, or unpleasant. High performers notice when standards are ignored, and over time it erodes trust, morale, and motivation.
When leaders tolerate poor performance or poor behavior, they do not just create a problem with one employee. They send a message to everyone else about what the organization is willing to accept.
BetterCulture helps leaders internalize that accountability is not the opposite of kindness. On healthy teams, accountability is an essential tool in how leaders protect their best people, reinforce shared standards, and create an environment where strong performers can thrive.
Leadership Principle #5: Leaders encourage and promote open discussion and analysis as a predicate to decision making.
In addition to understanding what it takes to make effective business decisions, good leaders know when to share information, invite discussion, and involve others in decision-making processes.
This does not mean every decision becomes a vote. It means leaders are thoughtful about communication and decision-making processes. When people understand the rationale behind decisions, they are more likely to learn from the process, make better decisions themselves, and implement plans well.In addition to understanding what it takes to make effective business decisions, good leaders know when to share information, invite discussion, and involve others in decision-making processes.
This does not mean every decision becomes a vote. It means leaders are thoughtful about communication and decision-making processes. When people understand the rationale behind decisions, they are more likely to learn from the process, make better decisions themselves, and implement plans well.
Leadership Principle #6: Leaders deal effectively with conflict.
Conflict is inevitable for anyone who accepts a leadership position. The question is not whether conflict will happen. The question is whether leaders will handle it well.
Great work groups are not devoid of conflict. In fact, teams without conflict are often also missing passion, innovation, and excellence. BetterCulture helps leaders learn to welcome productive, intellectual conflict while promptly addressing and discouraging damaging, personal conflict.
Leadership Principle #7: Leaders encourage others to enjoy their work.
Work is not the opposite of fun. The best leaders understand that teams can work incredibly hard and still create purpose, passion, and even some fun along the way.
Some leaders roll their eyes at this one. They shouldn’t. Enjoyment is not about lowering standards or avoiding hard work. It is about creating the kind of energy and connection that helps people do hard things together – and still want to come back tomorrow.
Simple to Understand. Challenging to Live.
The Seven Principles are simple to understand – but, like all great ideas, the challenge lies in living them every day.
That’s where BetterCulture can help.
We use the Seven Principles as the backbone of our leadership development programs. They give leaders common language, practical skills and frameworks, and a productive path for improving their leadership impact.
This is especially valuable for organizations trying to develop new managers, align experienced leaders, improve employee engagement or culture survey results, reduce avoidable turnover, increase performance, strengthen accountability, or create more consistent leadership across departments.
Our work is not built around flavor-of-the-month leadership theories or disconnected training modules. We help leaders apply these principles to the real situations they face every day: giving feedback, handling conflict, making decisions, addressing underperformance, building pride, supporting employee growth, and creating teams where people want to do great work together.
When leaders consistently model these principles, the payoff is powerful: stronger teams, improved performance, higher engagement, reduced turnover, less conflict, better communication, and a healthier culture that fuels business success.
If your organization needs more consistent leadership, stronger manager behavior, and a healthier culture, BetterCulture can help leaders build the everyday habits that shape how people experience their managers.
Explore client success stories from Fusion Medical Staffing and Nebraska Cancer Specialists to see how organizations have achieved exceptional business outcomes by investing intentionally in leadership and culture.
Contact BetterCulture to talk through how we can help your leaders build stronger habits, stronger teams, and a stronger culture.
